A permanent change to the gas tax is coming to Manitoba in the new year.
The provincial gas tax will continue to be levied on Jan. 1, 2025, but at 12.5 cents per litre, down 1.5 cents from 2024.
Manitoba’s gas tax holiday was scheduled to end June 30, but Premier Wab Kinew extended it to the end of the year in September, suggesting it could help with rising inflation.
The provincial gas tax will be 12.5 cents per litre of fuel starting in January. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Free Press files)
According to an estimate from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, a family that fills up both a minivan and a pickup truck once every two weeks will have saved almost $600 this year.
Critics of the measure argue the cut takes necessary funding away from other public services.
The opposition Tories have accused Kinew of “stringing Manitobans along” with short-term fixes as opposed to long-term solutions.
The tax break has costed the province $340 million.
Manitoba’s projected deficit for the 2024-25 fiscal year is $1.3 billion dollars, $513 million higher than what was suggested in budget 2024.
Malak Abas
Reporter
Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.
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